


The Essays

by HunterPeverell



Series: The Final Winter [5]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Author Commentary, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28596375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HunterPeverell/pseuds/HunterPeverell
Summary: Okay, this is just a series of little snippets and long rambling essays on my thoughts on stuff in my stories. This isn't a story, just a heads up. If you're not interested, no problem.Chapter 1: steve's aging and the fact that the writer's missed a golden opportunity for his character's theme okayChapter 2: piper, addison, and the fact that the soul stone was kept between a troll's toes in the comics
Series: The Final Winter [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2032501
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. steve's aging and the fact that the writer's missed a golden opportunity for his character's theme okay

Okay, so Steve’s age. This has been bugging me since 2019, but I finally sat down and thought it all out, so here was my thought process:

Steve has lived four different chunks of time: 1918-1945, 1945-2012, 2012-2023, and finally 1945-2023. I don’t count the second chunk, because he was a frozen hunk and there was probably little to no cell growth. Therefore, he’s lived 27 years, then 11 years, and finally 78 years. That makes Steve 116-ish years old when he returns as Old Rogers in 2023. Now, here’s the thing—there’s some issue with Steve aging fast or slower in the comics. In some comics, Steve (and the Red Skull, whose also still bopping around) look like they’re in their 30s despite being nearly a hundred years old. However, at one point when his serum is neutralized, Steve begins to age very quickly (check [this thread out](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/97317/how-does-the-super-soldier-serum-affect-the-rate-at-which-steve-rogers-ages)). However, you also have Steve in the Earth-460 reality who is functionally immortal.

So, essentially, the serum kinda ages Steve however the writers want, which is kinda annoying tbh. Well, what I want to base the serum off of is this whole idea that his cells heal four times as fast. I’m going to infer that means he’ll live for four times as long, because why the hell not? It’s comic book science. (Also, in _Age of Ultron,_ Thor kinda implied that Steve was not like other mortal men ([here at 2:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEuWx4fkrrE)) and the Red Skull kinda implies the same in CA:TFA, so … I don’t think I’m far off the mark since I think, personally, there’s more groundwork in the MCU for Steve to be aging slower/unlike other mortal men then there is for him to age quickly, especially since we know a lot of Steve’s ending was the result of reshoots, so I find it fairly likely Old Rogers was just kinda thrown in there for shock value.)

Okay, so, the average life expectancy of an American man is 76 years, but let’s round that up to a nice even 80 since Steve is peak health, which means that Steve should live for around 320 years. I.e., he shouldn’t be looking like an old pruney raisin just yet, he’s should have around two hundred years left in his ticker. Bucky, with his knock-off serum, I think would probably live around 300 years. (Also, I know Bucky talked about how Steve was two-hundred in chapter 3, but that’s because Bucky isn’t subtracting Steve’s time in the ice like I am.)

Basically, I’ve got a lot of opinions about Steve’s age, and I personally find it more interesting when Steve’s lifespan is extended, because it continues to explore his issues with loneliness and finding places and communities to belong, and honestly I just think it’s neat, okay, and him aging semi-normally (I mean, obviously Old Rogers is looking spry for a 116 year old) just doesn’t interest me as much. So, yes, I have an Explanation for Old Rogers in my story, I hope it’s good, fingers crossed.


	2. piper, addison, and the fact that the soul stone was kept between a troll's toes in the comics

Alright, so! Piper and Addison. I love my two little feral Infinity-Stone-Melded gremlins. However, they are actually based on comic book characters, though they’ve gone through quite the OCing process. All this is to say that I did have to do some research into this stuff, and I wanna talk about it here. If this sort of thing doesn't interest you, then fly free, my friend. The Essays are not at all crucial to understanding The Final Winter series.

In the comics, the Infinity Stones were protected by the Infinity Watch, an organization started by Adam Warlock. Every protector was personally selected by Warlock based on their unwillingness to use the stones. In the first iteration of the Watch, the Power Gem(/Stone) was protected by good ol’ Drax the Destroyer, the Reality Gem by Thanos (hahaha), the Time Gem by Gamora, the Mind Gem by Moondragon, the Space Gem by Pip the Troll, and the Soul Gem by Adam Warlock.

Yep, you guessed it. Piper is inspired by Pip the Troll, and Addison is a rift off of Adam Warlock (Addison being a female variant of ‘Adam’).

(You can read about the Gem Protectors [here](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Infinity_Stones#Gem_Protectors), Adam Warlock [here](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Adam_Warlock_\(Earth-616\)), and Pip the Troll [here](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Pip_Gofern_\(Earth-616\)).)

In order to pay homage to Pip the Troll, Piper got the surname Trolley (ayyyy) and in reminder of Adam Warlock, Addison got the surname Fay (after Morgan Le Fay, a witch).

None of this has anything, really to do with my stories, which was why this didn’t make it into the author’s notes, but I like researching this stuff and maybe some of you want to learn more about the Infinity Watch, too, and the fact that they [GAVE THE SOUL STONE TO A TROLL WHO KEPT IT BETWEEN HIS TOES.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_the_Troll#Infinity_Watch) I love it.

On a side note, I also went through this process with the Time Stone’s Custodian, Greyson. There’ve been multiple protectors of the Time Gem, including someone named Maxam, so I branched that off into Maximilian, his first name.


End file.
